


Those I Would Call Your Friends

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Lies, Misdirection, and Terrible Truth [21]
Category: Mythology - Fandom, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: GFY, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-14
Updated: 2012-11-14
Packaged: 2017-11-18 16:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you wish to ask some questions of me, Agent Barton?" </p>
<p>"Why not just ask for help?" It's probably a question he's not going to get an honest answer to, but it's the one he's most curious about the answer to. "You've got friends; hell, I bet even Thor would have helped you if you asked."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those I Would Call Your Friends

The place is massive, though otherwise it doesn't look like much form the outside. And from the inside, it only looks like one more place for someone with more money than they know what to do with. At least, until they're left by a servant in a room where except for the wall with the door, and the ceiling overhead - one massive skylight, he thinks - everything else looks like it should be growing outside. Trees and vines that create walls, and grass and moss under foot like a carpet. It's noticably warmer here compared to the rest of the house they'd walked through, and damper.

Coulson makes a quiet noise that could have been a sigh, and Clint looks over to see an expression that's something between amused and exasperated, under the perpetual calm the man holds onto. Clint still doesn't know how, but it's not terribly important at the moment. What's important is figuring out where in this place Loki is, because he's clearly not in this room, and their guide wouldn't come inside.

"You think it's some kinda game?" he asks quietly, in case all of this is illusion, and Loki's watching them and laughing.

"More likely some sort of test." Coulson makes the noise that could be a sigh again, and shakes his head. "Probably not one of Loki's doing, since the property is jointly registered under the current known aliases of Anat and the Morrigan."

"So, which direction?" Clint kinda wants to take the arch in the wall to the left, though why, he's not quite sure. And if it has anything to do with Loki, he doesn't want to know why.

Coulson is quiet a moment, before he starts for the arch Clint had already thought would be the best option. And with each twist and turn through corridors and rooms made of living plants, his tension grows, as the feeling he's following something like an invisible trail of breadcrumbs grows. He wishes he could have brought his bow, but Coulson had insisted that the only weapons they bring were tasers. Something about respecting the sanctuary of the home Loki's allies had built.

When they emerge into a clearing as big around as Clint's apartment before Stark had provided rooms in his tower, Clint is itching even more for the bow he'd left back on the Helicarrier. Loki is alone in front of a fire, leaning against a bench that's hard to look at - he could swear the carvings on it are actually moving, and that has to be magic. Creepy magic, too, since sometimes it looks like it could have come out of a porn flick, and sometimes a war movie. Back and forth between the two, and he only moves when Loki speaks and Coulson walks toward one of the other benches.

He spends much of the next few hours listening, and waiting. It's not entirely dissimilar to waiting for the right moment to take his shot at a target when he's being a sniper for SHIELD. Other than the fact he's not going to be allowed to take a shot at Loki.

"Do you wish to ask some questions of me, Agent Barton?" Loki is watching him with eyes that are more green than blue - which is a bit odd, since he vaguely recalls Loki's eyes being blue when he'd first met him, before the blank that is his time under Loki's control. It makes him wonder about what Loki said on the most recent battlefield, when he fought against the Chitauri instead of alongside them as Clint - as all of them - had expected.

"Why not just ask for help?" It's probably a question he's not going to get an honest answer to, but it's the one he's most curious about. "You've got friends, hell; I bet even Thor would have helped you if you asked."

Loki smiles, though Clint isn't sure what emotions are under that expression, and shakes his head. "Would you have believed me? Without first locking me away in some cell to interrogate?" His expression makes it clear he doubts that would have happened. "As for Anat, and the Morrigan... One was my teacher, my mentor, but I wouldn't call her friend, and the other is a queen in her own right, and does not have friends, merely allies and advisors."

"Looked like they were your friends to me." Clint doesn't flinch away from the not-quite-glare that Loki gives him. "They fought with you, they beat up the dude who was trying to kill you, and they have your back. Sounds like friends."

"You have a very limited grasp of the relationship that exists, then." Loki sighs, and shakes his head, gesturing a moment. It makes the fire flare as if someone had tossed another log onto it - and it takes a moment to realize, despite the lack of any log in hand, that's just what Loki had done. "Besides, even had I asked them then, it wasn't the right time or place to draw Thanos out."

"And last week, in the middle of Canada, was the right time and place?" Clint snorts, shaking his head. The right place, that he could grant. There hadn't been any civilians present to be put in danger, unlike in Manhattan. But the right time?

"Yes." Loki smirks, not giving him any more information than that. Either he's going to have to figure it out himself, or it's something that he's not going to figure out, because it's too twisty, like Loki's mind.

Clint gives him an irritated glare, but it doesn't seem to effect Loki. No doubt he'd gotten worse from Thor over his lifetime. Which, despite how old Loki looks, Clint suspects is longer than he'd like to think. Maybe a question for another time.

"If you would like, there are rooms for guests. You're welcome to remain the night, and depart in the morning." And that sounds like a dismissal, which means finding their way back out of the maze, maybe without the same sense of direction as getting in.

"The offer is appreciated." Coulson doesn't sound as if he's going to accept it, and Clint hopes he doesn't. "However, SHIELD has arranged other accomodations prior to our flight."

"Of course." There's a momentary twist of Loki's lips that makes it clear he doubts the offer is as appreciated as Coulson has said. "There will be someone waiting to escort you out, then, Agents."


End file.
